Ladakh: what altitude really asks of you

Leh sits at around 3,500 metres. Most travellers fly in from near sea level, and the first forty-eight hours decide how the rest of the journey feels. This is the single most common thing badly planned Ladakh itineraries get wrong. Our rule is simple: two full nights in Leh before anything ambitious. No high passes, no long drives, no early starts. Short walks in the old town, a slow afternoon at Shanti Stupa, an unhurried meal. It looks like wasted time on an itinerary and it is the reason people manage Pangong and Nubra comfortably later. After that, altitude gain should be gradual. Nubra sits lower than Leh, which makes it a sensible third or fourth night; Pangong is higher and better placed later in the journey. Where you sleep matters more than where you drive. Practical things that genuinely help: drink far more water than feels necessary, eat lightly for the first day, skip alcohol early on, and tell your specialist about any heart or respiratory condition before we plan anything. Oxygen and evacuation arrangements should be part of the itinerary, not an afterthought. And the reward for all this patience? Monasteries with almost no one in them at eight in the morning. Light that photographers travel across continents for. A landscape that makes conversation unnecessary. Ladakh does not need to be difficult. It needs to be sequenced properly.